


I'm coming home tonight, meet me in the valley where the kids collide into the morning

by story_forger643



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Assassination Attempt(s), Gen, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Zeetha is a Spark, bad ideas thats what, guess what happens when you mix a spark and technology?, me making up Skifandrian traditions, what 13yo didnt burn themselves out?, zeethas 13 though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27131062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/story_forger643/pseuds/story_forger643
Summary: Zeetha just wanted to find her brother and her father. It would be the perfect surprise for her mother, recovering from an injury. It was supposed to be a short trip, a few weeks.She sure didn't expect to be sucked into a land of assassins and thieves, meet new friends and enemies, and end up in a tale of adventure, romance, and mad science!But hey, what are you gonna do?
Relationships: Klaus Wulfenbach/Zantabraxus of Skifander, Zantabraxus of Skifander & Zeetha Daughter of Chump
Comments: 17
Kudos: 18





	I'm coming home tonight, meet me in the valley where the kids collide into the morning

**Author's Note:**

> so in this au Zeetha is a spark. she breaks through and does a stupid, because that's what sparks do when they break through.
> 
> I've had this idea for a while now, and I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> TW for unhealthy coping mechanisms and like, one mention of vomit

It was just after Zeetha’s thirteenth birthday when she snapped.

Well, not snapped, per say, but she was very stressed. Thirteen was a huge age for Skifandrians, it was when they were to graduate from youth learning, and begin their real warrior training, the intense, hard, you’ll-want-to-die-after-the-first-day training.

Zeetha could barely contain her excitement at the party. There was to be a large celebration for her on one day, and then her mother would take the day off and they’d spend it, just the two of them, going to explore the jungle or put on disguises and run around the city or anything, just the two of them.

They never got to go.

There had been assassins at the party. Not anything unusual, there had been many attempts on Zeetha’s life. Her curse, her twin, being the cause. Many opposed her mother, believing that Zeetha did not deserve her place in line for the throne, that she would bring bad luck to all of Skifander if she did. That if she lived to be much older, the Gray Witch would return. Usually they weren’t a problem. The guards would catch them, or one of Zeetha’s loyal relatives, or the princess herself would hold them off until help arrived.

But this time, they stepped up their game. There were more of them, and from what the investigators could tell, it had been several previously opposing alliances working together to target Zeetha before she could begin training, and she was still vulnerable.

There had been about two dozen who attacked the party. Three innocent people, five guards, and fourteen of the assassins had been killed in the following fight. Twenty-seven were injured, eight of those people gravely so.

Including Queen Zantabraxus. Zeetha’s mother.

There had been a knife, thrown from a distance. Zeetha was just getting up from another attack, and didn’t see it coming. Her mother shoved her down, taking the knife for her.

Zeetha remembers pulling her to safety, trying to stop the bleeding, watching her mother cough and gasp, blood spilling from her side, before being pulled off and into a hug by her grandmother, while someone else came to tend to Zanta.

It had been two days since then, and Zeetha hadn’t slept at all.

It took her a few hours to get over her state of shock, but then she went to see her mother, who was lying on a bed in the infirmary, her face pale, side all bandaged up. Her mother, her  _ kolma,  _ her  _ mom,  _ that was the Romanian word Zanta taught her, who was usually so strong, looked so weak, so vulnerable on the bed.

Zeetha hadn’t even been able to stay there for five minutes before she ran out.

She spent the next few hours in her room, sobbing. At one point, a servant came to check on her and offer her food, but the princess declined. She couldn’t bring herself to eat.

Late at night, she went down to the training grounds. She was allowed to be here now, technically. She hadn’t been officially chosen or begun her training, but it wasn’t like someone other than her mother would teach her. Besides, no one wanted to stop a princess who looked like she would kill the first thing that talked to her.

She stayed in the grounds for hours, running around, hitting the dummies, going over the basic moves she knew until she collapsed on the ground, blacked out from dehydration and hunger.

She woke up to her grandmother standing over her with water and some jerky. Zeetha had claimed she didn’t want any, and walked back to train, but her grandmother stopped her.

“You’re not going anywhere until you’ve had something to eat and drink. I know you’re in pain, but you need to understand, you have to take care of yourself. For me, if not for me, for you mother-”

“Don’t talk to me about my mother! She’s half dead because of me!” Zeetha screamed, throwing the training sword in her hand to the ground.

“Zeetha, that’s not true at all. This is only the fault of the assassins and a bit of bad luck, not-”

“Don’t you get it, Grandma? That means it’s my fault! I’m the bad luck! If it wasn’t for me, they never would have attacked! If it wasn’t for me, everything would still be okay, and mom wouldn’t be injured!”

The old woman walked towards her granddaughter. “Take a deep breath, little blade. I know it hurts, but you musn’t blame yourself-”

She was cut off by Zeetha running into her with fists.

Now, the old queen would have been easily able to fend off this attack, but she didn’t. It caught her completely by surprise, and as it continued, she could see that being pushed away wouldn’t help at all.

“This-was-supposed-to-be-our-day!” Zeetha stuttered through sloppy punches. “But now, because of those assassins, we might never get to spend a day together again! Because they wanted to kill me. Because of what I am.” Her punches slowed down, and she fell into her grandmother’s side.

“Because of me.” And with that, her grandmother wrapped her arms around the young girl, pulling her into a tight hug as she sobbed.

“It’s not because of you, Zeetha. You are not bad luck, you never were. You were the best thing to happen to your mother, you know. She hoped that maybe, if both you and your brother were to survive, it would finally prove those old superstitions about twins to be wrong, and that no one would have to lose that again.

“But I suppose it wasn’t meant to be that way, with your father running off and all.” Her grandmother sighed, pulling back from the hug and ruffling Zeetha’s hair. “Now you go and rest. For your mother.”

This time Zeetha listened.

* * *

She was sitting alone in her room when the idea came to her.

It was obvious in retrospect. Her mother’s enemies, the people who came to assassinate her, were all basing their attacks on one thing: her brother still being alive.

She knows Chump left with her brother that night. That he disappeared without a trace, not even a goodbye, only leaving behind a small toy for her and a note to her mother that said  _ I’m sorry. _

The guards didn’t see him leave, and there was no way to trace how his escape plan went, as all his notes were missing.

All except one.

* * *

When Zeetha was eight, she had gone exploring in the room that was Chump’s study, and had found, among many random objects and half built projects, a detailed sketch of Queen Luheia’s mirror. She had picked it up, not knowing much about it at the time, and was about to leave the room when her mother stopped her.

“What are you doing in here?”

“Nothing. Just exploring.” Zeetha had jammed the sketch into her pocket, trying to hide it, but an eight year old being able to hide anything from an experienced warrior was a long shot.

“What’s that you have, little blade? Mind if I see it?”

Zeetha had given her mother the sketch. She looked at it for a moment, then sighed. “Your father was obsessed with that mirror. We found him outside of it, you know. He always studied it, but all his notes on it vanished after he did, along with most of his other notes of course.”

She gave the paper back to Zeetha. “You can keep it. It’s not like he’s going to do anything with it.”

* * *

Now, Zeetha was working. She had been working all day and night, reading up on Queen Luheia’s mirror, trying to decode what his notes meant. She went down to look at the mirror twice, sketching it and taking notes before running back to her room, which was now covered in sketches and designs and plans.

Three days after the assassination attempt, a still sleepless Zeetha snuck into the lab where her mother worked, and stole every tool she could. She packed a small bag, with some food, clothes, and the swords that her mother was supposed to present to her yesterday, when she was officially made a  _ zumil. _

She made her plan. She was going to go through the mirror, find someone who knew her father, and bring him and her brother, if he was still alive, home. She would only be gone for a few weeks, maybe a month, so she didn’t need much stuff. Certainly Chump would have told Europa about Skifander, so all she would have to do is mention she’s the daughter of the explorer who went there.

It was going to go perfectly.

She began to work on the mirror.

* * *

It took four days for her to get the mirror working.

Well, working was a loose term. She had been tinkering with it for days, trying to get it to do something,  _ anything,  _ but no success.

All she had managed to get it to do was deactivate five times, blow up in her face twice, blow up while she was turned around three times, and get it to glow a different color for a few moments only for the contents of an entire river to dump out and ruin her work.

She had to break it to get it to stop, and spent a good half day cleaning up the workspace.

But now, now, things were different.

Zeetha had managed to get the mirror to glow the way it had before, and was now finding the sensors she put up to be giving off very different readings than she was used to getting.

“New readings, the weird control panel thing on the side seems to be working as well.” She muttered as she wrote down the notes.

“Alright, now lets see what you do.” She placed the notebook in her pocket and began tapping the control panel.

“Each button changes the readings,” She noted. “But nothing much else happens when pressed.”

She pressed another, and noticed a switch on the side of the panel.

“Wonder what this does.” And with that, she flicked the switch.

  
  


Zeetha had been missing for days, and everyone was panicking.

Her room had been found a mess, everything strewn everywhere. The palace and city had been searched a dozen times over, and they were now conducting larger parties out into the jungle to find the lost princess.

Since then, Zantabraxus had woken up and been alerted about her daughter’s missing status. She attempted to search, but was stopped by the doctor, her sister, and her mother, who all told her that if she so much as went down the hall without telling someone she’d be on bed rest with guards for a week.

Good thing Zanta never listened to advice much.

She checked Zeetha’s room first. Even if everyone else had checked, it seemed like an obvious place to start; maybe she’d find something others had missed.

The room was a mess. Papers all over the floor, bed left untouched, several plates of food lying half eaten, closet emptied of half its contents-

Wait.

Zanta walked over to the closet, and began digging through the clothing that remained in it. She found much of the lighter wear and fancy ceremonial clothing to be untouched, but what was missing was much of the cold weather clothing, and the sorts of things worn on expeditions. Her bag was nowhere to be seen.

Panicking, Zanta began tearing up the room, looking through Zeetha’s notes, hoping to find some sort of clue as to where her daughter ran off to.

_ Packing list. Romanian notes. Palace map. Queen’s Mirror diagram. More Romanian notes, these on their customs. Training forms, map of the castle’s secret passageways, planning sheet. _

“Oh.” The queen whispered very softly.

She screamed.

* * *

The call was heard, and guards came running, then came Mother, who was very upset with Zanta.

“I told you, bed rest. Let us know if you want to move, you’re still injured-”

Zanta cut her off. “I know where Zeetha is. She’s down by Queen Luheia’s mirror. I think she’s going to try and use it to find Chump.”

Mother’s eyes widened and she sprinted out of the room.

* * *

“Now or never, Zeetha.”

The young princess went over the contents of her pack one more time. Clothes, especially cold weather ones-check. Training notes-check. Romanian notes-check. Mirror notes-check. Food-check. Water-check. First aid kit-check. Bedding-check. Weapons-check.

“Let’s do this.” And with that, Zeetha put on her pack and turned toward the mirror.

“Zeetha!”

_ No.  _ They couldn’t have found her. She’d taken every precaution, sneaking out of the palace, covering her tracks, only returning when the guard changed. But they had found her nonetheless.

Well, it was too late now. She had unlocked the secret of Queen Luheia’s mirror, and she was going to find her father, find her brother, and bring them home. She wouldn’t return without them, and if that wasn’t possible, she’d return with proof that they were gone.

“Zeetha, stop!”

It was her grandmother, but she couldn’t stop her now. No matter how hard she tried.

Zeetha took a step forward, then froze. This was terrifying, stepping into the unknown of the mirror. Maybe she hadn’t repaired it correctly, and going through it would kill her. Maybe it would blow up in her face. Maybe she’d drop in the middle of the ocean and drown, or be taken prisoner by pirates, or-

_ In for four, hold for five, out for three, still for one.  _ The breathing exercise her mother had taught her to keep herself centered and focused when she started to panic, suppressed the thoughts.

_ Mom.  _ What if she recovered, only to find Zeetha missing? What if she never woke up? What if she was dead?

All the more reason to find the rest of her family.

“Zeetha!”

The princess turned around to see her grandmother running through the mirror chamber, guards behind her, desperate to catch Zeetha.

“I’m sorry, Grandma. I’ll be back soon, promise.” Zeetha gave her one last look, a sad yet hopeful smile, and turned back around, sprinting into the portal and

Everything

Was

Nothing

* * *

The portal was a completely indescribable sensation, like moving at the speed of light but not moving at all. Completely intangible, yet connected to it all.

It was also very nauseating. What felt like a billion volts of electricity coursed through her, yet did not hurt, despite it creating a whirlwind of a headache for her as she fell through for an instant.

As soon as she landed, stumbling to her knees on some hard, cold ground in a dimly lit room, she bent over and threw up on the floor. Gasping to catch her breath, she turned around to see if anyone had followed her through, only to see the portal that she came through explode in two small places, stop glowing, and light itself on fire.

“Great.” She muttered. Just perfect. Now how was she supposed to get home.

She looked around the room. It was a small, dimly lit chamber. Almost like a lab. Underground, perhaps. Cold, and a little hard to breath, but that might just be a side effect from the portal.

Pipes, tubing and wires ran all around it. The walls were gray, with glowing green lights and the occasional gold and red outlining things.

And speaking of red, standing in front of her were five teenagers, each with pale skin and bright red hair. A few older people, dressed in purple stood behind them. They were all pointing some kind of weapon at her.

_ “Who in Andronicus’s name are you?” _

* * *

Zantabraxus sat on her bed, hopeful. But the moment her mother walked in with a sad look on her face, she knew something awful had happened.

“Is she-”

“She’s alive, I think. But...I don’t know, Zanta.” The old woman sat down on her daughter’s bed. “She jumped through Queen Luheia’s mirror, with a pack and everything. I would have chased after her, but she must have done something, tampered with the mirror trying to get it to work, and, well...it exploded. Parts of it, anyway.”

“She...she broke the mirror?”

“In a way, but I think she also fixed it. Either way, tools were everywhere around the place, and the mirror had been modified. They’re still trying to figure out what she did, but…”

Zantabraxus was stared dead in the face by her mother. “Zanta, your girl is a spark.”

A million thoughts ran through Zanta’s head.  _ A spark? At such a young age? What-of course, the assassination attempt must have triggered it. But there’s been attempts before. Why would this be any different? But why the portal? Why- _

Then it hit her.

It was Zanta herself who had triggered her daughter’s breakthrough, or at least her injury had. And now her daughter was off who knows where, mid breakthrough with no support, no help, nothing.

And based on what her mother was trying to tell her now, Zeetha was looking for Chump and her brother.

**Author's Note:**

> that's it for now, everyone! if you're wondering why the mirror isn't working anymore, well, Zeetha's a spark who just broke through, her works bound to be a bit sloppy and loose around the edges. also I needed a reason for her to be lost but
> 
> this is gonna be a pretty short chapter compared to the others (hopefully), but I needed to make it short for prologue purposes. I'm only just getting back into writing fanfic after having to spend months catching up from school (and getting hyperfixated on The Owl House but that's now relevant right now) so updates will be very random.
> 
> feedback/advice etc are always good
> 
> thank you and goodnight!


End file.
